The Red Bull camp is playing down claims that Mercedes will have by far the best engine in the new Formula 1 season. In recent months there have been widespread rumours that the Silberpfeile hold the strongest cards heading into 2026. Many insiders fear a repeat of 2014, when that team likewise ran away with the advantage when new rules were introduced. According to Red Bull, however, Mercedes has done much to fuel those same rumours itself.
For now there are still plenty of question marks around 2026 and the eventual pecking order in Formula 1. Several teams have described the changes as the ‘biggest regulatory overhaul in the sport’s history’, leaving it unclear which outfits will excel and which will misjudge it badly. At the start of the hybrid era Mercedes enjoyed an immediate, significant edge thanks to an exceptionally competitive power unit. Rumours suggest the team could set the benchmark again, but rival Red Bull remains sceptical.
Ben Hodgkinson, technical director of Red Bull Powertrains and a former Mercedes HPP staffer, rejects all the speculation. He also says his former team has been responsible for a lot of the noise. “I think a lot of that chatter comes from Mercedes themselves,” he told The Express. “My grandmother always said: ‘An empty tin rattles the loudest.’” Asked about his view on the balance of power between the teams, Hodgkinson kept his lips tightly sealed. “I don’t think I can give my real opinion.”
‘You have to take the politics into account as well’
“The press has been suggesting that Mercedes would set the benchmark,” he added. “Many of those rumours they probably put out themselves, because the driver market is very tight and they had to attract people with a car that, at that moment, wasn’t performing well. You have to take the political considerations into account as well,” Hodgkinson warned. “If you repeat a rumour often enough, it gets treated as fact. That’s my theory.”
The Red Bull boss concluded that he mainly wants to wait and see what happens on track. “I just want to keep my head in it and get on with it,” he continued. “Then the results will speak for themselves.” Finally, he compared his role at Red Bull Powertrains with his time at Mercedes HPP. “Mercedes is a very capable manufacturer; I worked there for twenty years, so I know the team very well. At Red Bull I’ve made sure we do everything better than before. I can measure myself against the past, so I know where I stand. I’m mostly looking forward to getting started. It feels like I haven’t raced in four years.”
